All eyes in the Summit League will shift to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, this weekend when the league begins its postseason hoops tournament. On Thursday, the league will announce its postseason awards, including Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
Here's my ballot for this year's awards:
Men
All-League Team
1. Lawrence Alexander (NDSU) - League's best scorer at 19.1 points a game, and a terrific team leader. He put NDSU on his back after the Bison lost Taylor Braun, TrayVonn Wright and Marshall Bjorklund. MVP honors in the league have been his for a while now.
2. Obi Emegano (ORU) - Right there with Alexander for MVP honors midway through the conference season, Emegano trailed off a little bit when ORU went through a brief slump. He's averaging 19.4 points per conference game, which is second to Alexander, and Emegano is first during conference play in free throws made (92) and second in steals (27).
3. Cody Larson (SDSU) - Hard to discern the Jackrabbits' best player since they display quality balance. But without Larson's 6-foot-9 frame in the middle, South Dakota State would just be a team chucking it up from anywhere. Larson is now first in the league in rebounding (7.7 per game) while third in blocks (16), fourth in field goal percentage (54.3) and fifth in scoring (15.4).
4. Tyler Larson (SD) - A different kind of Larson, compared to Cody at SDSU. A wiry guard at 6-3, Tyler Larson is still one of the Summit League's best rebounders, averaging 7.7 in all games this year (first in the league) and 7.4 in Summit League contests (fourth in the conference).
5. Deondre Parks (SDSU) - Like Emegano at ORU, Parks will be a key piece to his team's roster again next season. Parks transferred to SDSU from Iowa Lakes Community College, and he had an immediate impact with 14 points a game.
6. Steve Forbes (IPFW) - Hard to nitpick at 13.9 points and 6.1 rebounds a game, but at 6 feet, 9 inches, it seems like Forbes should be more involved for IPFW. The Mastodons started league play by losing their first two games, a result of Forbes totaling 11 points combined in setbacks against Western Illinois and IUPUI.
7. Brett Olson (Denver) - Picked as the preseason player of the year, Olson never quite took the reins as the league's best player. Also didn't help that while Olson was averaging 13.6 points per game and in the top 10 in 3-point and free-throw percentage, the Pioneers still didn't win much. Plus Olson was held to single-digit scoring efforts five teams in conference plays.
8. George Marshall (SDSU) - A transfer from Wisconsin, Marshall became eligible in late December after semester tests were over. It was clear from the start that Marshall was a scorer, finishing the regular season at 13.1 points per game. If he improves in other areas, Marshall could campaign for next year's most valuable player.
9. Korey Billbury (ORU) - Went through periodic scoring droughts this season, but his rebounding was pretty constant. Despite getting suspended for violating team rules, Billbury still was one of the league's best 11 players this season.
10. Garret Covington (WIU) - Western Illinois just isn't a great team right now, and the injuries to don't help. One constant, though, was Covington on the offensive end (outside of a three-point game at North Dakota State where he went 1 of 12 from the field). Covington is still young and will almost certainly be one of the better scorers in the league next year.
11. A.J. Jacobson (NDSU) - Jacobson will be a mainstay in the league for years to come. As a freshman, he averaged 11.5 points per game. More impressive, though, is he's already established himself as a 42 percent 3-pointer shooter and an 84.1 percent free throw shooter.
All-newcomer team
1. George Marshall (S. Dakota State)
2. A.J. Jacobson (N. Dakota State)
3. Deondre Parks (S. Dakota State)
4. Max Landis (IPFW)
5. Tre Burnette (South Dakota)
Defensive Player of the year
1. Devin Patterson (Omaha)
2. Chris Kading (N. Dakota State)
3. Cody Larson (S. Dakota State)
Sixth Man
1. J.C. Fuller (W. Illinois)
2. Dexter Werner (North Dakota State)
3. Trey Norris (South Dakota)
Coach of the Year
1. Dave Richman (North Dakota State) - It was a widespread belief that North Dakota State would taper off after such an impressive run last year. The Bison lost a lot of talent to graduation and coach Saul Phillips left to take a job at Ohio U. The Bison, though, never skipped a beat with Richman being elevated from assistant coach to head coach. Just an overall impressive job by Richman this season.
2. Scott Nagy (South Dakota State) - Nagy did a great job of meshing returning talent with transferred-in talent. And now he has set himself up for success again for years to come.
3. Jason Gardner (IUPUI) - Don't get hung up looking at IUPUI's record. The Jaguars are an offensively-challenged team, but Gardner found a way to work around that and collect six conference wins and 10 victories overall. Really like what Gardner is capable of moving forward.
Women
All-league team
1. Vicky McIntyre (Oral Roberts)
2. Brooke LeMar (N. Dakota St.)
3. Ashley Luke (Western Illinois)
4. Raeshel Contreras (South Dakota)
5. Megan Waytashek (South Dakota State)
6. Haley Seibert (IPFW)
7. Macy Miller (South Dakota State)
8. Mikaela Shaw (Omaha)
9. Nicole Seekamp (South Dakota)
10. Akilah Sims (IUPUI)
11. Paige Bradley (Denver)
All-newcomer team
1. Vicky McIntyre (ORU)
2. Macy Miller (SDSU)
3. Shaquira Scott (IUPUI)
4. Taylor Thunstdt (NDSU)
5. Remy Davenport (Omaha)
Defensive Player of the year
1. Vicky McIntyre (ORU)
2. Nicole Seekamp (South Dakota)
Sixth Woman
1. Taylor Thunstedt (NDSU)
2. Mikale Rogers (IUPUI)
3. Ellie Thompson (SDSU)
Coach of the Year
1. Amy Williams (South Dakota)
2. Aaron Johnston (South Dakota State)
3. Misti Cussen (ORU)
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